Uptight (Everything's Alright)
| Released = November 22, 1965 | Format = 7" single | Recorded = | Genre = Soul | Length = 2:52 | Label = Tamla | Writer = Stevie Wonder, Sylvia Moy, Henry Cosby | Producer = Mickey Stevenson, Clarence Paul | Chart position = | Chronology = Stevie Wonder | Last single = | This single = | Next single = | Misc = }} "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" is a 1965 hit single recorded by Stevie Wonder for the Tamla (Motown) label. One of his most popular early singles, "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" was the first Stevie Wonder hit single to be co-written by the artist. A notable success, "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" peaked at number 3 on the ''Billboard'' Pop Singles chart in early 1966, at the same time reaching the top of the ''Billboard'' R&B Singles chart for five weeks. Billboard ranked it as the 59th biggest American hit of 1966. An accompanying album, Up-Tight, was rushed into production to capitalize on the single's success. Background The single was a watershed in Wonder's career for several reasons. Aside from the number-one hit "Fingertips", only two of Wonder's singles had reached the Top 40 of ''Billboard's'' Pop Singles chart, ("Workout, Stevie Workout" reached #33 in late 1963 and "Hey Harmonica Man" reached #29 Pop in the Summer of 1964) and the fifteen-year-old artist was in danger of being let go. In addition, Wonder's voice had begun to change, and Motown CEO Berry Gordy was worried that he would no longer be a commercially viable artist. As it turned out, however, producer Clarence Paul found it easier to work with Wonder's now-mature tenor voice, and Sylvia Moy and Henry Cosby set about writing a new song for the artist, based upon an instrumental riff Wonder had devised. Nelson George, in Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound, recorded that Wonder had also sought something based on the driving beat of the Rolling Stones's "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," after playing several dates with the Stones on tour and being impressed with the British band. As Wonder presented his ideas, finished or not, "he went through everything," remembered Moy. "I asked, 'Are you sure you don't have anything else?' He started singing and playing 'Everything is alright, uptight.' That was as much as he had. I said, 'That's it. Let's work with that.'"Mojo Magazine, January 1996, pg. 32 The resulting song, "Uptight (Everything's Alright)", features lyrics which depict a poor young man's appreciation for a rich girl's seeing beyond his poverty to his true worth. On the day of the recording, Moy had completed the lyrics, but didn't have them in Braille for Wonder to read, and so sang the song to him as he was recording it. She sang a line ahead of him, and he simply repeated the lines as he heard them. In 2008, Moy commented that "he never missed a beat" during the recording.Martin Freeman Goes to Motown, BBC television6 January 2009 Chart performance Weekly charts Year-end charts Little Ole Man A note-for-note re-recording of Wonder's version was used as the backing track for Bill Cosby's 1967 musical comedy single, "Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright)". Bill Cosby is not related to the song's co-writer Henry Cosby. In popular culture *Australian band Human Nature recorded a version for their 2006 album Dancing in the Street: The Songs of Motown II and released a remixed single version in 2007. *The song appeared in the 2013 Glee tribute episode "Wonder-ful" as performed by Cassandra July (Kate Hudson). *The song also appears in D-TV set to Donald's Double Trouble. *The song also appears in the 1995 film "Mr. Holland's Opus" and is featured on the soundtrack. References External links * Category:1965 singles Category:1966 singles Category:2007 singles Category:Stevie Wonder songs Category:Nancy Wilson (jazz singer) songs Category:The Supremes songs Category:Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs number-one singles Category:Songs written by Stevie Wonder Category:Songs written by Sylvia Moy Category:Songs written by Henry Cosby Category:Tamla Records singles Category:Song recordings produced by William "Mickey" Stevenson Category:1965 songs